When I was a kid my mom could go to the grocery store most any time of the day or week and buy a fresh loaf of bread. There was a Kerns Bakery just down the road in Bristol, and all the local stores sold their bread, cakes and other bakery items just hours after they came out of the oven.
But several years ago that wonderful bakery closed its doors, and ever since that day it’s been easier to find an honest politician than an honest-to-goodness fresh loaf of bread. I have picked up loaves that had just been brought in off the truck, only to discover that they were already hard enough to send you to the ER if you happened to drop one of them on your foot.
Back in the day there were local bakeries in most cities of any real size across this great land, but as the industry consolidated via mergers, buyouts and bankruptcies, they literally became few and far between. And of course that has turned out to be quite a bad thing for us consumers.
The “old” bread that the bakeries used to sell in their thrift stores was fresher than the “new” bread that Kroger, Wal-Mart and the other grocery stores try to pass off as fresh these days, and it drives me bonkers every time I try to find a loaf that won’t chip a tooth at the very first bite.
We humans have made great strides in many areas of our lives in recent years, but when it comes to the very staple of the American diet we have gone backwards in time. It saddens me to know that my granddaughters will likely never have the pleasure of biting into a truly fresh slice of bread.
I have to agree with you on this one.